posted on 2019-08-29, 08:58authored byDaniel Ratliff, Andrew ArcherAndrew Archer, P Subramanian, AM Rucklidge
For soft matter to form quasicrystals an important ingredient is to have two
characteristic lengthscales in the interparticle interactions. To be more
precise, for stable quasicrystals, periodic modulations of the local density
distribution with two particular wavenumbers should be favored, and the ratio
of these wavenumbers should be close to certain special values. So, for simple
models, the answer to the title question is that only these two ingredients are
needed. However, for more realistic models, where in principle all wavenumbers
can be involved, other wavenumbers are also important, specifically those of
the second and higher reciprocal lattice vectors. We identify features in the
particle pair interaction potentials which can suppress or encourage density
modes with wavenumbers associated with one of the regular crystalline orderings
that compete with quasicrystals, enabling either the enhancement or suppression
of quasicrystals in a generic class of systems.
Funding
L’Oréal UK and Ireland Fellowship for Women in Science
Leverhulme Trust (RF-2018-449/9
Quasicrystals: how and why do they form?
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.148004.